{"id":619139,"date":"2026-02-27T04:59:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T04:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/619139\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T04:59:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T04:59:20","slug":"anthropic-ceo-says-it-cannot-accede-to-pentagons-demands-for-ai-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/619139\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthropic CEO says it cannot ‘accede’ to Pentagon’s demands for AI use"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday that the artificial intelligence company \u201ccannot in good conscience accede\u201d to the Pentagon\u2019s demands to allow unrestricted use<\/a> of its technology, deepening a public clash with the Trump administration that is threatening to pull its contract and take other drastic steps by Friday.<\/p>\n

The maker of the AI chatbot Claude said in a statement that it\u2019s not walking away from negotiations but that new contract language received from the Defense Department \u201cmade virtually no progress on preventing Claude\u2019s use for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon\u2019s top spokesman, said earlier on social media that the military \u201chas no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthropic\u2019s policies prevent its models from being used for those purposes. It\u2019s the last of its peers \u2014 the Pentagon also has contracts with Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk\u2019s xAI \u2014 to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the Department\u2019s prerogative to select contractors most aligned with their vision,\u201d Amodei wrote in a statement. \u201cBut given the substantial value that Anthropic\u2019s technology provides to our armed forces, we hope they reconsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Defense<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Evan Vucci)<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Evan Vucci)<\/p>\n

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic an ultimatum on Tuesday after meeting with Amodei: Allow the Pentagon to use the company\u2019s AI as it sees fit by Friday or risk losing its government contract. Military officials warned that they could go even further and designate the company as a supply chain risk or invoke a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act<\/a> to give the military more sweeping authority to use its products.<\/p>\n

Amodei said Thursday that \u201cthose latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a post before Amodei\u2019s announcement, Parnell reiterated that the Pentagon wants to \u201c use Anthropic\u2019s model<\/a> for all lawful purposes\u201d but didn\u2019t offer details on what that entailed. He said opening up use of the technology would prevent the company from \u201cjeopardizing critical military operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not let ANY company dictate the terms regarding how we make operational decisions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Emil Michael, defense undersecretary for research and engineering, later lashed out at the Anthropic CEO, alleging on X that Amodei \u201chas a God-complex\u201d and \u201cwants nothing more than to try to personally control the US Military and is ok putting our nation\u2019s safety at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The talks that escalated this week began months ago. Amodei said that if the Pentagon doesn\u2019t reconsider its position, Anthropic \u201cwill work to enable a smooth transition to another provider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is not seeking reelection, said the Pentagon has been handling the matter unprofessionally while Anthropic is \u201ctrying to do their best to help us from ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy in the hell are we having this discussion in public?\u201d Tillis told reporters. \u201cThis is not the way you deal with a strategic vendor that has contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWhen a company is resisting a market opportunity for fear of negative consequences, you should listen to them and then behind closed doors figure out what they\u2019re really trying to solve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was \u201cdeeply disturbed\u201d by reports that the Pentagon is \u201cworking to bully a leading U.S. company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, this is further indication that the Department of Defense seeks to completely ignore AI governance,\u201d Warner said in a statement. It \u201cfurther underscores the need for Congress to enact strong, binding AI governance mechanisms for national security contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Defense<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stands outside the Pentagon during a welcome ceremony for the Japanese defense minister at the Pentagon in Washington, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Kevin Wolf, File)<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stands outside the Pentagon during a welcome ceremony for the Japanese defense minister at the Pentagon in Washington, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Kevin Wolf, File)<\/p>\n

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While Pentagon officials say they always will follow the law with their use of AI models, the department has taken steps to change the culture among the military legal ranks.<\/p>\n

Hegseth told Fox News last February, weeks after becoming defense secretary, that \u201cultimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don\u2019t exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same month, Hegseth also fired the top lawyers for the Army and the Air Force without explanation. The Navy\u2019s top lawyer had resigned shortly after the election in late 2024.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday that the artificial intelligence company \u201ccannot in good conscience…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":619140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[7060,49610,3881,738,64,276,184165,12785,84,69,66,265109,57,51,59,128421,8132,50,6986,80,26562,158,16538,52,25731,93],"class_list":["post-619139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alphabet","tag-anthropic-pbc","tag-ap-top-news","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-business","tag-california","tag-dario-amodei","tag-dc-wire","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-elon-musk","tag-emil-michael","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-inc","tag-mark-warner","tag-military-and-defense","tag-news","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-sean-parnell","tag-technology","tag-thom-tillis","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s-department-of-defense","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116140832724579963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}